Various functions are performed in farming. In today's technological society, such functions are very frequently automated. One significant problem in contemporary farming is soil erosion. An additional significant problem is soil conservation. Both of these problems should, appropriately, be addressed by a farmer.
The soil conservation problem considers ground water pollution. Such pollution results from usage of chemical pesticides and herbicides. Usage of such chemical products enables weed reduction.
The erosion problem can be significant. During the winter season, topsoil can be dislocated by the elements. The value of a field which was once an asset, can, thereby, be diminished.
The erosion problem can, in some measure, be solved by retaining a trash build-up on the surface over the winter season. Such build-up serves to inhibit the transfer of topsoil from one location to another.
When trash build-up is facilitated in order to minimize soil erosion, problems can arise when cultivation is performed in the immediate succeeding year. The presence of trash can result in the collection, accumulation, and jamming of various components of a cultivator. "Plowing" of the soil can consequently result. Such "plowing" can result in the burying and significant damaging of young emergent plants.
As previously discussed, in order to effect minimization of soil erosion, there should be a significant amount of trash left on the soil between planting years. Such trash residue functions to protect the soil from wind and water.
A farmer is constantly confronted by the problem of potential damage which might be occasioned upon his young plants because of trash being dragged along by a cultivator. Various solutions have been proposed to solve this problem. One takes the form of a shield which is carried by the cultivator and is positioned relative to a row of young plants. The row will be insulated from the "plowing" of soil by the claws of the cultivator and trash accumulating in the claws. Typically, such shields are disk-shaped in form and are disposed on the cultivator frame for rotation about an axis generally transverse to the direction of movement of the cultivator through the field. Being so disposed, they are able to rotate in planes substantially parallel to those of emergent plants.
It has become clear that such disk-shaped shields should be able to freewheel. If the shields are able to freewheel, there is a significantly less likelihood that a plowing effect will be created by one or more of the wheels and that the shield will have a detrimental effect rather than a favorable effect. In view of the desire, and even necessity, that trash be allowed to remain in the field to minimize soil erosion, however, it has been found that there is a tendency of such freewheeling disk-like shields to become jammed by the trash. As a result, detrimental effects can result to the crop being cultivated.
It is to these dictates and problems of the prior art that the present invention is directed. It is a cultivator shield attachment which functions positively to pass trash through the cultivator as the cultivator passes over the field. Consequently, the cultivator shields do not become jammed by the trash which might result in soil being plowed over the crop rows.